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Monday, April 1, 2013

My children & I were blessed to get to meet the missionary
pilot & his wife who took over in Equador after Nate Saint
& Jim Elliot & the other missionary men were killed. I
was so inspired by these missionaries who were willing to give up their
lives to show God's love to people who had never known that kind of
love. I was even more inspired by the missionaries families willingness
to not only forgive the Indians, but also to befriend them &a
have a relationship with them. Such a powerful example of forgiveness!

This
is a picture of the five missionaries that went into the jungles of
South America to show the love of God to the Auca Indians who knew
nothing but killing and being killed.

If you have not heard the story, I encourage you to check out these resources:

I
have seen all three of these DVDs &a they are all very moving.
"The End of the Spear" is a Film based on the story of what happened
between the Aucas and the Missionaries. Though not everything in the
movie is true. "Through the Gates of Splendor" is a documentary by
Elisabeth "Betty" Elliot ( Missionary Jim Elliot's widow). "Beyond the
Gates of Splendor is a documentary by Steve Saint ( Misssionary pilot
Nate Saint's son). I highly recommend these three videos for anyone
interested in learning more about the story. (Viewer discretion is
advised for ages 13 & under.)

For younger children I recommend watching this movie to begin with until they are old enough to handle the others:

This
is an animated movie of the missionary story that begins when the five
boys were in school. My kids watched this and said it was not scary at
all :) It also has a cd-rom that includes a pdf printable activity book
with comprehension questions.
Our whole family enjoyed this one! This story of love, sacrifice & forgiveness
will live in our hearts &a not be forgotten.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."--Jim Elliot

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

I have been searching for more ways to incorporate the true meaning of each holiday & why it is I choose to celebrate it. Easter, for our family, is no exception. This year the kids asked if they could come with us to "The Stations of the Cross". Below are some of the stations we visited...

The kids writing a note to Jesus. <3

Feeling how heavy a cross similar to the one Jesus had to carry up the hill would have been. (It was really heavy!)

A yearly tradition for our family.

Resurrection Eggs:

Here are what I put in each of the eggs & the document I created to tell the Easter story:

The kids LOVE this activity! My youngest loves to take each thing out of the egg, pretend to eat the cracker (& freak Mommy out;) & especially loves the shiny golden egg that is empty which symbolizes- HE is Risen!

See the Light Art - Easter Project

I pinned lots of great ideas for Easter onto my Pinterest Board-Check it out below:

Saturday, February 9, 2013

I love any reason to celebrate! Whether it be a birthday, wedding or holiday. What better way to celebrate God's love than with some fun Valentine's Dayideas!?! I have collected a bunch of ideas from different blogs to share with you and most are inexpensive. Yahoo!! These are just a few of my favorites. Scroll down to the end of this post for even more ideas!

Redeeming Love
Heaven
Power of a Praying Wife/Parent
Passion & Purity
Holy Discontent
One Thousand Gifts
Creative Correction
The Love Dare
Love and Respect
The Scarlet Thread
Her Mother's Hope/ Her Daughter's Dream
A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23
Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus
The Case For Christ
Accessible Apologetics
Bathsheba: The Wives of David Series
Changed into His Image
Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends
Jesus Calling
Managers of Their Homes
I Kissed Dating Goodbye

Books My Husband Has Read that He Recommends:
Every Man's Battle
Power of a Praying Husband
The Man in the Mirror
Family Driven Faith
Redeeming the Time
Raising a Modern Day Knight
Evidence That Demands a Verdict
Wild at Heart

Currently Reading:

Family Driven Faith

Raising Maidens of Virtue

Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free
So Much More

On My List to Read Next:
Queen of the Home
Large Family Logistics
What Did You Expect?
It's Not That Complicated
Her Hand in Marriage

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Modesty had never really been on my radar. I knew what I thought was appropriate and what I thought wasn't, but never really looked into it any further than that...Until now. With all of the pornography ingrained into our culture, I have been studying and researching what makes men want to look at those things & what can we do to help them? While the answer does not entirely fall on us, I believe a man's heart needs to be pure and focused on the Lord. The Lord made the answer very clear to me as to my part. As I have been reading, studying and interviewing different people I have discovered one very helpful thing that we as girls/ women can do to help our brothers...How we dress. Men were created very visual beings. It may surprise some of you the thoughts that go through a man's mind through out the day. Some of them surprised me. As a good friend of mine pointed out to me, "You don't know what you don't know." That is until the Holy Spirit convicts you, or illuminates you, you don't know that you are doing something wrong. I never thought the way I dressed was making anyone stumble. I had always been appropriate, nothing too revealing, or so I thought. But in my journey I discovered there were some fatal mistakes I was making. Spiritually fatal, that is. Each discovery opened my eyes further to see that I was a stumbling block to my brothers in Christ and even to other women's husbands. Here are some of the resources I received on this journey that I would like to share with you. They have helped me a great deal to create my own family standard of dressing modestly. A friend of mine studied Scripture to see what it said about nakedness. She found that every scripture on nakedness was a woman's thigh showing. After I found the "Modesty Survey" I realized that ANY cleavage showing was a stumbling block for men. So my friend made up a catchy little tune," Neck to knee, no one should see!" I thought it was cute and that is the standard my family tries to live by. Also after reading research about how men's eyes immediately go to a girl's crotch when she wear pants, I did a screeching halt. I surely don't want anyone but my husband looking at that area or anyone looking at my daughters in that way except their husbands, so trying to wear pants after knowing these things really convicted me. We now wear skirts or dresses 90% or more of the time. My daughters have also chosen to do this on their own. Even after I told them it was o.k. for them to wear pants because there were no more clean skirts until I did laundry, they insisted on finding a dress to wear instead. These are our families own personal convictions. Not every family will have the same journey as we did. I just want to bring to light some of the truth we have learned to educate and encourage fellow sisters to be mindful of their dress.To do further research, read below for some more resources on modesty.

What does it mean that God clothed [Adam and Eve]? Was he confirming their hypocrisy? Was he aiding and abetting their pretense? If they were naked and shame-free before the Fall, and if they put on clothes to minimize their shame after the Fall, then what is God doing by clothing them even better than they can clothe themselves? I think the answer is that he is doing something with a negative message and something with a positive message.

Negatively, he is saying: You are not what you were and you are not what you ought to be. The chasm between what you are and what you ought to be is huge. Covering yourself with clothing is a right response to this—not to conceal it, but to confess it. Henceforth, you shall wear clothing, not to conceal that you are not what you should be, but to confess that you are not what you should be. One practical implication of this is that public nudity today is not a return to innocence but rebellion against moral reality. God ordains clothes to witness to the glory we have lost, and it is added rebellion to throw them off.

And for those who rebel in the other direction and make clothes themselves a means of power and prestige and attention getting, God’s answer is not a return to nudity but a return to simplicity (1 Timothy 2:9-10). Clothes are not meant to make people think about what is under them. Clothes are meant to direct attention to what is not under them: Arms and hands that serve others in the name of Christ, “beautiful” feet that carry the gospel to where it is needed, and the brightness of a face that has beheld the glory of Jesus.

Modeling Modesty

The mention of the word modesty conjures up images of women in petticoats and bonnets. It has become an outdated notion instead of a desirable trait. Christians are wise to remember that modesty is biblically mandated. It is an attitude that starts in the heart and works outward.

As we narrow our look at modesty to the issue of clothing, it is easily observed that when women of the world head out in the morning, they are not concerned about appearing modest. Instead, most women are heading out hoping that they are in vogue, in fashion and not wearing last year’s styles. Many clamor to be in step with whatever Hollywood has trotted out.

Does God care how we dress? Yes, He does. He cares about every aspect of our lives. We are called to holiness, holiness in what we do, what we say, where we go, how we act, how we think, what we listen to, what we read, what we sing, and yes, how we dress. Scripture bears this out. Read Ephesians 5:8-10, 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 and 1 Peter 1:15 for starters. May God give us both the desire and the wisdom to live lives that are holy in every aspect. A lost world is watching. -Mary K. Mohler

Girls are in a tough spot when it comes to modesty. They are called by God to dress modestly, but because they aren't born with the same "visual nature" in their sexuality as guys are, it is difficult for women to spot where modesty begins and ends. Where are the boundaries? What trips a guy's trigger, and what doesn't?

As guys, we complicate it further by carelessly sinking to our own lowest levels sexually. Our visual nature first forces God to call women to modesty, depriving them of their freedom to define their own style of dress. While that is frustrating in its own way, their real frustration comes when we only pay attention to the girls in our youth groups that dress hot, while ignoring the ones who dress modestly and chase after God. We expect the women to protect us from our own visual nature by dressing modestly, while doing little to rise above that nature ourselves, allowing them to be penalized twice over for our nature

Who can blame the girl who throws up her hands and snaps, I'm through worrying about this modesty thing! Their eyes are their problem, not mine! I certainly can't blame them as long as we are being so lazy about it ourselves. We must take care of our own responsibilities first by disciplining our eyes and our minds to line up with scripture if we expect our women to line up in modesty. We are men. We must lead in all this.

And that is what I love about The Modesty Survey. It allows guys to take some responsibility and leadership. We can honestly help train our sisters in Christ about where those boundaries lie and, hopefully, as we think through the issue ourselves, we can begin to stand up as men by joining the Rebelution against low expectations. Expect more of yourself sexually. Begin by honoring those girls around you who are dressing modestly and who are focusing as much on their inner beauty as their outer apparel.

Our family had always tried to dressed as
modestly as we could in our pants, however I wondered why some
Christian families had all of their ladies wear dresses or skirts. I
couldn’t find a scripture that said, “Thou shall always wear dresses or
skirts”, and yet we continually saw beautiful, conservative families
dressing this way exclusively and intentionally. We’ve watched clothing
trends moved towards less and less material especially for women and
even worse, less and less clothing for young women and girls – and disappointingly, the church is less and less a haven of refuge from these trends. Finding pants for our
girls that were even moderately conservative was becoming nearly
impossible. Then in 2007 some dear friends of ours suddenly made the
change themselves to wearing only dresses and skirts – and I had the
opportunity to inquire as to the reasoning behind this.

This friend loaned me a book she had
recently read that changed not only the clothing they chose to wear but
also their hearts in many ways. The book, Dressing with Dignity, by Colleen Hammond (written from a Catholic perspective, which we do not endorse, but there’s little reference to this in the book),
gives an abundance of practical how’s and why’s of truly dressing and
behaving modestly. There is a link to this book on our “Recommended
Books” list. It is a smaller book, concise, persuasive, very
informative in practical information. This was an opportunity for us to
tie what we had been doing casually to some great Biblical principles,
physical realities, and emotional needs of our girls while at the same
time setting a great example for our boys, and protecting the eyes of
men around us. We do not want to stir up inappropriate thoughts or
behaviors on the part of men or boys, or provoke emotional or physical
actions towards our girls. There is a difference between dressing
attractively and dressing to attract (not that dressing to attract her
husband is a bad thing when a girl is married!). We are preserving our
girls’ innocence while they are learning to accentuate their grace and
beauty. (Dressing modestly does not mean frumpy!) Our family has also
been so pleased to discover several other invaluable blessings after our transition to modest clothing! *smile!*

Before learning some reasoning for
wearing only dresses and skirts we were trying to find pants that
weren’t too tight in the bottom, too low on the hips, or shorts that
weren’t “short-short”. One of the reasons for wearing dresses or skirts
exclusively is that when a woman is wearing pants a man’s eyes fall to a
woman’s crotch. This isn’t necessarily intentional; it’s just the
nature of men “to look”.

“Advertising agencies quickly prepared
marketing research to find out the reaction of men to a woman wearing
pants. Do you know what they found? Using newly developed technology,
they tracked the path that a man’s eyes take when looking at a woman in
pants. They found that when a man looked at a woman in pants form the
back, he looked directly at her bottom. When he looked at a woman
wearing pants from the front, advertisers found that his eyes dropped
directly to a woman’s most private and intimate area. Not her face!
Not her chest! (DWD, p. 49)”

And when we’re talking about wearing dresses and skirts I mean long
ones, not mini ones. When women wear slacks, short dresses or skirts,
or ones with a long slit, men’s eyes follow the lines he sees right up
her legs and complete the picture in their imagination. (Women’s eyes
do the same thing, but since women don’t have the same type of
temptation their imaginations don’t complete the picture like men’s do.)

And yet,

“…when a woman dresses with dignity,
men tell me that this appeals to their chivalrous nature. Her
femininity helps them to elevate their thoughts (not to mention their
eyes). It allows them to uphold a woman’s honor, to respect truth and
beauty, and to grow in their role as a ‘gallant knight’ (DWD, p.14).”

God’s Word speaks very clearly about our responsibility towards one another, and on being above reproach.

“You have heard that it was said to
the ancients, ‘Thou shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that
anyone who so much as looks with lust at a woman has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.” - Matthew 5:27-29.

“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” - 1 Cor. 8:9. (also Rom. 14:13b; 1 Cor. 10:23, 24, 27-32.)

“I am saying this for your own good,
not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided
devotion to the Lord.” - 1 Cor. 7:35.

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching…” - John 14:23.

God’s Word is not to be taken lightly.
We cannot say that we have made Him Lord of our life, and yet keep
certain areas of life for our own pleasure. You may have heard it said,
“He is lord of all, or He isn’t lord at all.” Christians belong to
Him, we are purchased with the price of His Son’s life. We show Him
love through our obedience, and we are held accountable to what we have
learned. God was bringing revelation to my spirit, and initially I
didn’t like it, and I didn’t want to “sacrifice” my clothing style likes
for obedience. But God surprised me. *smile*

As I contemplated the reality of making this change in lifestyle, I shared with my friend four of my main concerns,

“Isn’t it uncomfortable; don’t you feel dressed-up all the time?”
According to her testimony initially, and now from what I’ve found -
not at all! Wearing dresses or skirts doesn’t necessarily mean dressed
up formally. We girls in the family began searching out a style of
dresses and skirts that was “us” – pretty but casual, comfortable,
feminine, and attractive – not frumpy. We buy all of our clothes used,
so we began frequenting our favorite used-clothing stores every week
looking for dresses, skirts, and shoes for all our ladies. Initially we
found 1-3 items at a time for one of us. We couldn’t afford to just go
out and replace my and our 3 daughter’s wardrobes suddenly; it took a
year or two to really grow a new wardrobe and find what types of dresses
& skirts we were comfortable in. The Lord so blessed our decision
towards modesty this way! We have found plenty of real nice clothes for
each of us, and doing it used was very affordable. *smile* We are
more comfortable now than we ever were in pants, and we feel much more
feminine (more on this down below).

“How do you clean a bathroom in a dress?”
My friend replied with a smile and in her practical way that I love,
“The same way our grandmothers did.” And she was right. With
comfortable skirts or dresses it’s just as easy as it is in pants. With
the right skirt or dress on (not too full or too long), it’s no big
deal, actually.

“How do you stay warm in the fall and winter?”
We wear what we refer to as “dress pants” and/or warm knee-high socks
or tights. Our littlest girls wear cute bloomers, or white stretch
pants/shorts (because white goes with all of their dresses), or Capri
sweat pants or stretch pants. The older girls also have white stretch
pants or shorts, or other thin cotton Capri pants, like brown ones to
wear under their brown skirt, grey ones for under denim if they’d like.
I wear either a pants slip that goes to my knees, or white Capri or
long stretch pants. We all have tights, and we have knee-high boots,
and warm under tops that also help, and sweaters & sweatshirts.
We’re very warm!

“How do little girls play easily and modestly?”
They always have some sort of “dress pants” on. We do keep one pair of
jeans and one pair of shorts for each of the girls for when they ride
bikes in the yard and when they go boating in Puget Sound in the
summer. They can’t climb in and out of the boat into waist-high salt
water wearing a dress. Swimming shorts are pretty modest, and wet suits
are worn when they’re swimming, plus life jackets. It’s not exactly
“skimpy” attire when we go boating in Puget Sound! *LOL* No matter how
hot of a summer day it is, Puget Sound is C-O-L-D. And boating is
almost exclusively with just our extended family, so we’re not too
concerned about it right now. We start our baby girls into full time
dresses when they learn to walk around age 1 because dresses don’t seem
very conducive to crawling.

When
starting out on our search for a whole new style, I really had no idea
what to look for! So I’ll give you an idea of what my favorite wardrobe
includes now. For every day wear I love cotton, stretchy fabrics
best. I’m also comfortable in soft cotton, corduroy, and twill
fabrics. I love an Eddie Bauer, J Crew, or Gap
look, fairly tailored but not confining, sometimes a little sporty, yet
still very feminine. My favorite dresses are the tee-shirt type dresses
(like in the photo below), and dresses with an empire waist, which sits
on the rib cage rather than low on the hips. Skirts need to have some
room to move around in so they’re usually a fuller style with gathers or
tiers, and short slits in the back or front. I love tiny floral
patterns for tops or solid colors, beige and denim skirts that go with
most any top. We had to find a new shoe style, too, and I had no idea
what that would look like at first. We began patiently shopping at the
used clothing stores so that buying several pairs of nice shoes for each
of us wasn’t expensive at all. I learned that a Merry Jane style shoe
goes with any dress or skirt (not black patent leather necessarily, but
the style of a Merry Jane), slip on flats, smaller, dainty tennis
shoes, sandals, or a nice tailored boot. I wear cotton knee high socks
mostly as they go with Merry Jane style shoes or tall boots for warmth,
sometimes I’ll wear tights but I don’t prefer them, and ankle socks
with tennis shoes. Our girls dress very similarly in clothes and
shoes.

For Church I wear very similar clothes
but not the sporty look, and I try not to wear denim as it just feels
too casual with everyone else dressed up. I’ll wear a more fitted
strait skirt because I’m not taking care of daily tasks and activities,
or dressier fabrics like rayon for dresses. I sometimes wear heals,
although for me it’s harder to carry babies and toddlers wearing these
right now, not to mention balancing when I’m expecting a baby *chuckle* ,
so I usually stick with low heals if any.

There were a number of very pleasant
unexpected heart changes for us ladies as well when we made this
transition. Women move and act differently when wearing a dress; I
think all women would acknowledge this. We began to feel and act more
feminine, prettier, and even more submissive to the head of our home, my
husband and the children’s daddy. I always knew that my husband
enjoyed seeing me in a dress every Sunday, but it never occurred to me
to wear a dress all the time as a blessing to him. This alone would
have been worth the change! *smile!* After all, I’m the only wife he’s
ever going to have – I desire to dress to please him. It’s good for a
woman to fill her husband’s eyes and thoughts with pleasing sights to
help him never be tempted to look else where. Bob was thrilled with our
new style, and was happy to fund our wardrobe change! Now, I wasn’t
neglected by him at all when wearing pants, but now I receive extra
special attention and flirtations from the man of my life! How fun is
that to feel like my appearance is so pleasing to him, like when
we were first courting! When I’m wearing a dress, I do not feel like
trying to be the head of the home, either. I didn’t realize that I had
that tendency before we changed our clothing style, but I really did
behave that way – and Bob felt it. This may seem like an over
exaggeration, but our marriage has really been blessed by changing over
to dresses and skirts, and most all of the friends we’ve met who have
made this change in their own families (hundreds of families we’ve met
now) have said the same thing! It’s truly a deeper heart issue, the way we dress. And Bob and I are so pleased to introduce these feelings, behaviors, and protective innocence in our girls at a young age.

Once learning of the Biblical importance
and moral responsibility behind protecting men and boy’s eyes and
thoughts, and our girls’ hearts, we did make the change pretty much
“cold turkey”. Once we found a couple of dresses or skirts for each of
us to wear to start with, we wore those only, and we continued to shop
for nice used clothing every week until we each had a complete wardrobe
for each season. Thankfully we began this process in the spring season
of Washington so we did not need a bunch of warmer items immediately,
just some basic summer dresses. We gave away all of our pants, shorts,
women’s Spedo one-piece bathing suits, and even desired to give away our
pajama pants. We eventually found very pretty night gowns, cool ones
for summer and warm flannel ones for winter that are just as warm as
pajama pants were – and we feel so pretty! My parents purchased for our
girls’ new bathing wear from the only place we knew of at the time, J
Crew, who makes darling shorts and tee shirt outfits out of stretchy,
quick-drying swim fabric. Yes, swim pants, not the most modest but far
more so than the more common bathing suits today! It was a start.
Since then we’ve learned of a couple of places that sell very cute
dress-style bathing wear and we hope to buy those some time in the
future. These swim items are not inexpensive, but it is the one thing
that we’ve chosen to save for and invest in new for the children as we
feel it’s important for them to have this option, and we do all go
boating all summer long with the grandparents. However, once the girls
all have swim wear that first year the younger girls have items to grow
in to and we no longer need to buy for them all, only for the oldest
daughter who then passes the items down.

We were so pleased that all of our girls
eagerly embraced the change to wearing dresses. Girls seem to generally
have a natural delight in dresses; it’s like their hearts just resonate
with this femininity. So it’s nice to run with that natural feeling
beginning when they’re young ladies or younger; before the masculinity
of the culture gets a grip on them.

Finally, I would love to share with you
some of the websites where we’ve found great dresses, skirts, night
gowns, dress pants, knee high socks, and maternity clothes online!
We’ve actually rarely needed to buy anything new because the Lord has
provided abundantly through the used clothing stores, but once in a
while there’s the need to purchase a specific item new. For example,
nightgowns for our girls, as women’s night gowns for our older girls do
not fit them right. Below is a list of places where we’ve found very
nice clothing items. A couple of which we’ve purchased from, and
friends of ours have purchased from some of the other sites. The web
sites vary in price and style, so I encourage you to look through
several of the sites if you’re shopping.

Lilies Apparel– High quality, beautiful, huge
selection of styles and fabrics, similar prices to above site,
everything from dresses, maternity, jumpers, bloomers, socks, etc. You
can order their catalog to be sent to you.

God has so blessed our family, our
marriage, and He has renewed mine and the girls’ attitudes towards
modesty and femininity. I am completely confident that He will do the
same for you if you ask Him to! *smile!* It’s been so nice,
surprisingly comfortable – I so much more prefer dresses now than
pants any day, and we have peace knowing that we’re following the
Lord’s instructions in dressing modestly. We asked the Lord to change
us to fit His will, and He was so faithful to do so! What a blessing!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Do you ever find yourself feeling rushed, stressed or even empty during the holidays? I know I have many times in the 13 years my husband and I have been married. Rushing from one families house to another and stressing about what presents to get whom and the commercialism of the holiday season is not what it is all about. It took us a few years to realize what we were allowing into our family were not traditions we wanted. We learned that we needed to make some changes, compromising by rotating holidays with family and lowering expectations about gift giving. We also wanted to make the Christmas season about Jesus (the true reason for the season). God gave us the greatest gift of all in Jesus Christ, His son, and we want to honor Him. Although Saint Nicholas is a historical figure (Read more on that HERE), he is not the meaning of why we celebrate Christmas. Here is a list of some of our family traditions during the holidays. Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know your traditions and what special things you and your family do during the holidays.

(This year was the most stress-free, low-key Christmas seasons we have ever had...I really liked it! Next year we hope to incorporate the Jesse Tree and I would LOVE to get The Christmas Angel, too!)

2. Advent- My aunt made my family an advent calendar; the same one we had growing up! It is made out of cork covered with felt & my aunt found miniature ornaments/jewelry to hang on the tree. The kids love putting the ornaments on the tree. They take turns every year putting the star on the tree.

*-What God Wants for Christmas: We LOVED doing this together as a family!

Publisher's Description-From the creators of Resurrection
Eggs Unwrap the true meaning and wonder of Christmas with each gift box
in this interactive, kid-friendly nativity. Build a family tradition
with every reading of the poetic Christmas story written by Barbara
Rainey. Included is a read-with-me guide to share Christ with listening
children. The book's captivating illustrations, the six presents each
containing a sturdy, hand-painted character in the story, and the pop-up
stable scene will take children on the journey to Bethlehem's first
Christmas. The surprise ending in box #7 peeks inside the heart of God.
Children will enjoy listening to the beautifully produced dramatic audio
presentation of the book's story on CD.

* A Storytime Advent Calendar: This is a yearly tradition for our family. We wrap Christmas books and number each one for each day in December, then on that day we open that numbered book and read it before bedtime. This blog is where I got the idea, however, I just wrap the books in regular Christmas wrapping paper and then write the number on the package with a sharpie.

3. Christmas movies- Watching Christmas movies in December is a tradition in our house. While my husband's favorite is "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", I like the classic movies such as "White Christmas", "Holiday Inn" and some new favorites like "Christmas Lodge" and "Christmas Angel".

4.Christmas Lights & Caroling- We always make time to drive around and look at Christmas light displays. We have a "Christmas Tree Lane" close by and drive through that every year. Then we look online or find out from friends about new displays in the area and try to go to those too. We all love seeing the creativity put into the Christmas displays.
Caroling is also something our family loves to do. We surprise friends or family & show up at their homes caroling. Or we will go to a retirement home and sing for the elderly. Music brings such joy to people. I created a PDF of Christmas Carols for our church's Christmas program this year (we were roving carolers). As a gift to you all, I am giving you a free copy of it! Merry Christmas! Click on the words below to download:

Sunday, November 11, 2012

I
have been reading a book called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voscamp
given to me by a dear friend. I won't give too much away for those that
have not read it yet, but it is such a wonderful book. Ann paints a
beautiful picture with her poetic words of her journey to finding joy in
the midst of suffering. Someone dares her to make a list of 1000 things
she is thankful for and she accepts the challenge and so her book is
born. It has inspired me to look at the things I have been blessed with
instead of focusing on what I don't have or wish I had.
I am so blessed to have my faith that gives me hope of an eternal
future. I am so blessed by my husband and all of my children. I am so
blessed to have the worlds most amazing, incredible, giving, loving
friends in the whole wide world! I am blessed to always have had a roof
over my head, food in my tummy and clothes on my back. And so much more!

All of these gifts I have been given have ignited a passion in me to
give back. I got my family involved and I will admit they all were
reluctant at first but while they were doing each of the activities I
saw something wonderful happen! They were smiling and having a great
time, and they said they were actually more blessed to bless others!
Wow! Is this the same family that grumbled just a few hours ago?

This is a picture of my girls at Feed My Starving Children. An
organization that sends dried packaged food to hungry children all over
the world. This day was SO much fun! They play fun music and the time
goes by SO fast! This organization is so organized too! They have little
groups of assembly lines so that the packaging is very efficient. We
were able to pack enough food to feed 105 children for a year that day!
My girls did the weighing and they rocked! They went quickly but
carefully following all the instructions and not once did they complain
that they were tired! I want to sign up for 2 shifts next year:) Shhh,
don't tell my family ;) lol

We also did Operation Christmas Child. This organization sends shoebox
sized packages to children around the world who will not receive
anything for Christmas. I just LOVE this idea. Christmas is my favorite
time of year. Everything about it excites me, but most of all because it
reminds me of the greatest gift of all that was given, Jesus. So to
share His love, we decided to fill up a box for a boy (in honor of
Nathan). So the girls used their keys that they earned from church to
buy a few things for the box and we went to the dollar tree for the
rest. It was so special to see my family coming together to find special
things for this little boy. With the toys the girls bought, things we
had at home in our treasure bag and dollar tree items we ended up with
enough to fill 2 boxes! So we decided to fill one for a girl also.

One of the ladies I had met that worked for OCC told me about when she
went to deliver these gifts to an orphanage in Russia and the children
were so happy because they all had their own toothbrush. About 20 kids
were having to all share one toothbrush! I told my husband,"That is just
not right! That is just not sanitary! They each need their own
toothbrush." So the toothbrushes were the first things to go in the
box:)

This was what we put in the girls box: Webkinz, toothbrush, toothpaste,
floss, hair ponies, bar of soap, stationary set, bouncy ball,
bandaids, sucker and a card from us that said Merry Christmas.

This is what we put in the boys box: Toothbrush, toothpaste, floss,
socks, soap, bandaids, hotwheels car, flying airplane, bouncy ball,
plastic drinking cup and a card from us with our family picture wishing
him a Merry Christmas.

We also sang Christmas carols for the children at Shriners Hospital, and sang carols as we rang the Salvation army bell.

1.
Today, I will make our home a house of prayer. I will pray at set
times. And I will invite our children to come move into an interior
space that lives with God.

2. Today, I will transfigure all things into beauty, and I will refuse to see anything else.

3. Today, I will not have any emergencies. There are no emergencies! Only amateurs hurry.

4.
Today, when stress mounts, I pray to dismount it with gratitude. My
stress management plan will be intervention with verbal thanks. I can
only feel one feeling at a time, and I choose to give thanks at all
times. Fight feeling with feeling!

5.
Today, I will pray to speak words that are only STRONG words, words
that make these children feel strong. Grace words. Grace is the only
non-toxic air. All other words I breathe are death words.

6.
Today, I will pray to be consistently consistent. I will create safe
rhythms that our children can find security in. I will create daily
ceremonies because everyday we are CELEBRATING the gift of now!

7. Today, the moment when I am most repelled by a child's behavior, that is my sign to draw the very closest to that child.

8.
Today, I will hug each of my children as many times as I serve them
meals -- because children's hearts feed on touch. I'll look for as many
opportunities to touch my children today as possible --- the taller they
are, the more so.

9. Today, my priorities will be all Things Unseen.

10. Today, I will laugh! And I will let the little children laugh! I will create a culture of JOY!

Thank you to my friend L for introducing this to me! I was a little
hesitant at first with the black quinoa, but I like to try new things,
so I gave it a shot. This is so yummy! I modified her recipe a little,
this is how I made it:

On a family night out to B & N I found this amazing cookbook with
whole food recipes. I was not able to get it that day, but just about
every single recipe in this cookbook I wanted to try, so I saved &
came back to get it later.
I have really been passionate about finding healthy whole food recipes.
If it is gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, or raw I am very interested in
trying it. Although, it does need to still taste good ;)

My
hubby & I do our grocery shopping bi-weekly, so I used this
cookbook to meal plan for 2 weeks & I feel healthier already!

This is one of the things I made with this cookbook:

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

This
was my first time roasting my own peppers. It is super easy & you
don't have to worry about preservatives or any other added ingredients. I
adjusted this recipe a little.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

3 red bell peppers

2 cups of garbanzo beans (I used the dried ones & then cooked them with water in my crockpot for 3 hours)

whole wheat pita, toasted

1 garlic clove

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cumin

1 cup of vegetable broth

1 TBS balsamic vinegar

1 TBS fresh lemon juice

2 tsp grapeseed oil, plus more for drizzling

salt & pepper to taste

Wash peppers & place them in a
rimmed pan & drizzle oil over top. Place in a 400 degree oven &
roast until blackened all over. Turning when needed. Take out of the
oven &

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